Applying Leadership Theories in Early Childhood Education Management

This essay explores the concept of leadership within the context of early childhood education, focusing on the importance of leadership development for children and the role of organizations like Early Childhood Australia (ECA) in training future leaders. The author presents a personal leadership philosophy rooted in transformational leadership, emphasizing the need for collaboration, employee empowerment, and family involvement in decision-making processes. Drawing from personal experiences as a room leader, the author discusses the application of various leadership theories, including imperative and visionary leadership, while also acknowledging negative experiences with the Great Man theory. The essay concludes by outlining how the author intends to enact their leadership philosophy by building strong connections with children and families, ensuring inclusive decision-making, and providing support to children with social needs, all within the framework of early childhood care.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Leadership
Leadership is the action or the process of leading any group of people or organization. A
sound leadership system is needed at each and every field. The leaders or the managers have to
make sure that they are keeping proper discipline among the people. The concept of leadership
is very elusive and also tricky at times (Molchanov, 2016). This is because of the fact that it is
often very difficult to cater to the level of satisfaction of each and every child (Gopee &
Galloway, 2017). However, it is seen that in this modern day scenario, the leadership roles are
becoming very complicated. Leadership is one of the important concepts in the aspect of early
childhood development. The children have to be properly developed so that they can grow up to
be responsible citizens. The leadership development for the children must be done at a young
age.
This is because children will be able to lean properly when they are There is the ECA or
the early childhood Australia Framework that is helping to provide in-depth and detailed training
to all the teachers and the caregivers. The ECA is one of the very well known organizations that
help in providing expert advice and the tips for grooming the early childhood leaders of the
future (Gopee & Galloway, 2017). However, it has to be noted in this concept that the theory of
ECA identifies the leadership in a different manner. In other words, the ECA defies the old and
the traditional definition of leadership. They are of the opinion that leadership is not more about
staying in the top hierarchical position. However, it is more about attaining some particular kinds
of results by establishing a proper connection with each other.

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The leadership program as mainly designed for the purpose of training the young childhood
leaders so that they can provide proper care to the children. Some of the very important aspects
that form the core areas of the ECA are as follows
 The learning, development and the well being of the children are always the main focus.
 The leaders will always make sure that they are taking care of the
 Putting forward a joint collaborative approach that will help in maintaining a proper
ethical inquiry
 Collaboratively create a community of learners.
 One of the basic aspects of developing early childhood leadership capacity is to develop
an in-depth and intricate relationship with the children.
What is your leadership philosophy
I will be acting as a transformational leader. I will try to bring some changes within the
existing early childhood setting. I have seen this from my experience that many of the childhood
leaders do not bring in the families or the other teachers of the early childhood center. I will be
using this leadership style for bringing about a change or a kind of transformation within the
early childhood practices. In order to do this, I will have to vest my faith within the employees. I
will make sure that I am not taking any authoritative rule. Motivation is one of the major factors,
will try to motivate each of my employees so that they can take their own decisions and be able
to bring about some kinds of changes. I have seen this in my entire professional career that many
of the early childhood experts have tried to work independently without taking the view or the

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opinion of any others. This is really a major drawback. One of the basic criteria through which
the early childhood exerts can carry on with their work properly is to involve the parents in the
decision making process. Involving the parents into all the decisions is one of the key changes or
key transformation that I want to bring in this setting. My leadership philosophy is to follow the
principles of transformational leadership in a way that will help me to follow both an employee
centric and a consumer centric approach. I will try to follow a truthful, encouraging and
trustworthy nature that will help me to involve all the customers in the decision making process.
My leadership philosophy is to make sure that I am being able to put forward an honest,
truthful, trustworthy and encouraging approach. This will be very useful for forming a proper
connection with all the staffs that are working in the room and also the staffs that are working in
the center. However, I have developed this philosophy by using various leadership theories. I
had been working as a room leader in one of the early childhood care centers previously. This
helped me to gain good knowledge regarding the key aspects of leadership. One of the important
leadership theories that have helped me immensely is the theory of imperative leadership. This
theory believes in moving forward by lending proper encouragement and support to the
followers as well. In other words, this leadership theory is very helpful as it helps in making the
followers get a clear understanding of the tasks and the goals of the work. As for instance, I was
working as a room leader.
I made sure that I am being able to establish a proper connection with all my colleagues
and young children as well. This would help me in understanding how much the rest of the
stakeholders are being n able to get involved within the entire process. In order to do that, I had
made sure that I am properly communicating with the children and also their families. This is the
reason that I volunteered in taking up the role of the room leader for the toddlers. I knew that

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working with toddlers would be a bit tough job. Often the toddlers are very tough to handle. It is
for this reason that I wanted to take up this particular role. I think that the transformational
leadership theory is of utmost importance as it helps in bringing about some of the other kinds of
changes or transformations within the existing system. In other words, I have to bring about
change by properly interacting with all the children.
As an ECE professional, I have to make sure that I am being able to understand the
psychology of each and every child. The nature of the day to day work in the ECEC involves
taking care of each and every child and being affectionate towards them. It is often seen that the
female workers sure thought to be apt for the role of ECEC as they are more affectionate by
nature. However, I wanted to bring a transformational change within this concept. Thus, I made
sure that I am interacting with both the male and the female stakeholders involved.
I also have several personal experiences that have taught me how to develop my
leadership style and my leadership philosophy in the field of early childhood care. I have seen
that many of the leaders do not like to take the feedback or the opinions of the rest of their stuff.
As a result of this, they like to take decisions on their own and impose the same on their
followers. I have also seen that the participative leadership style has been very useful for me to
become an effective early childhood professional. I always made it a point to involve all the
stakeholders within the decision-making process. In other words, the parents, caregivers and all
the other staffs working in the Early Childhood center were asked to take part in all the meetings
that took place. I always kept this point in my mind that none of the procedures are complete
until and unless we are taking any feedbacks from them. After gaining a good amount of
experience in the field if early childhood cares, I shifted onto another company where I got
appointed at the role of a full-time room leader. I was assigned a few responsibilities by the

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Director. She wanted me to bring a proper consistency, routine, discipline, and boundary within
the room. This would help me in taking proper care of the children. I sat in the meeting with all
the concerned staffs so that I could get to know about the kinds of issues that are being faced by
them. This really helped me a lot to know about the employees and their thinking about the
ongoing functions of the Child Care Center.
The Director was very happy with my work and said that she could see good leadership
skills within me. In other words, she was happy with me as I initiated mass participation from the
employees. This is one of the major aspects that must be present within a leader. The group
meeting was so successful that I got all the positive feedback from the parents. Apart from this,
the parents were also happy as I could take proper care of all the toddlers and keep them in a
very happy and calm mood. Visionary leadership has also inspired me a lot in order to become
an able leader. This leadership theory follows the principles of inspiring the rest of the
stakeholders in order to meet up the organizational goals that have been set. However, I have
also come across some negative aspects within the course of my career. I have seen there are
some people who follow the Great Man theory of leadership. They feel that no one can actually
rise above them as they are born with the unique quality of becoming leaders. I joined in one of
the companies called Good Start where I was working as a room leader. After gaining a good
amount of experience I switched over to another option.
The Director of this company was not happy with me. She said that I was actually lying
to her regarding the number of years for which I have been working. In other words, she thought
that I was not very truthful regarding my years of experience. I realized that trait one cannot
move forward with this leadership theory. Particularly in the case of early childhood setup, the
leaders must have a very open and participative approach.

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I wanted to bring some changes to this existing system. Thus after I joined another
company as a full-time room leader, I made sure that I am involving all the stakeholders within
the decision-making process. This approach helped me to abide by the theories of
transformational leadership theory and also the theory of X and Y. As I involved all the
stakeholders and asked for their opinions, they were really happy. This helped me to use theory
Y. I kept up my faith in the feedback and opinions of the parents and also the families of the
children. This also helped me to bring about a transformational change as I was able to include
all the staffs within the decision-making process. This really helped me a lot to get positive
feedback from the parents and the other people who were involved in the process of taking care
of the children. All the personal experiences that took place throughout my professional career
has really been very helpful.

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Enacting the Leadership Philosophy
I will be using my leadership philosophy within the context of the early childhood
context. Making a close bond with them is of utmost importance. It is for this reason that I will
try my level best to form genuine connections with the children and their families as well. I will
also make sure that each and every decision is being taken with the due knowledge of the parents
and the families of those children. I will never abuse any children who are in need of social
needs. I will make sure that I am providing them all the possible support so that they can start
leading a normal life within the company of other children.
I will surely use some of the NQF principles while implementing my leadership
philosophy as an ideal early childhood professional. I will develop thorough knowledge
regarding all the essential aspects of child maintenance. I will take detailed information
regarding the social and the financial status of the parents of the child. If the information of one
of the parents is unknown, I will take help from all the other investigators in order to draw that
information. This will help me to know if the parents are capable of providing a stable life for the
children. In extreme cases, the early childhood professional has to complete right to take the
matter to the court.
I will make sure that a sound child abuse treatment is being given to the children right at
a very young age. As soon as I notice that some of the children are showing any unusual
behavior, I will make sure that I am carrying an in-depth investigation. On finding that the child
has passed through some sexual abuse I will try to consult with the concerned families and the
health care professionals so that proper care can be taken. I will also make sure that we are
forming joint collaborations with the NGOs, Police, Community service companies and many

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other such organizations. This collaboration will help in taking better care of the children. The
social workers render a big help and support in becoming an able early childhood professional.

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Molchanov, M. A. (2016). The Ashgate research companion to political leadership. Routledge.
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